EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.  The final pass from Philip Rivers sailed high and out of bounds, well over the head of Antonio Gates, who was theoretically the intended target.

In explaining what happened on what appeared a throwaway on fourth down, an increasingly dour Rivers unintentionally summed up what’s wrong with the Chargers’ offense as well.

“I was trying to give Gates a chance there on the boundary,” Rivers said. “Nobody was open. It didn’t matter where I threw that one.”

No one is open, again and again.

Yes, the Chargers had more penalties (13 for 95 yards) called against them Sunday than they had in almost exactly three years. Yes, Philip Rivers had two passes intercepted that led to the Jets’ final 10 points and gave him nine for the season, tied for the league lead. Yes, poor coverage contributed to three Plaxico Burress touchdown receptions. Yes, the Jets converted four of their final six third downs.

And, yes, a frenetic, tricky Jets defense is the best the Chargers have faced this season and might be the biggest such challenge they face the rest of the way.

But Sunday’s failure – and the reason for worry going forward -- is on the offense.

With just 117 yards and zero points in the second half, the Chargers stumbled their way to a come-from-ahead defeat, 27-21, at the hands of the New York Jets.

The 268 total yards by the Chargers made for their worst offensive output since Nov. 8, 2009, against the New York Giants in the old Giants Stadium, which sat where the MetLife Stadium parking lot is now.

That was a 21-20 Chargers victory earned with an eight-play, 80-yard drive capped by Rivers’ 18-yard pass to a falling Vincent Jackson in the end zone with 21 seconds remaining.

Rivers on Sunday had a chance to pull off another late heist that would have quieted the Meadowlands and probably had him reprising his length-of-the-field celebratory sprint as the Chargers escaped New Jersey with an improbable victory.

Not this time. Not this year.

The man who entered the season with 12 fourth-quarter come-from-behind victories could not make one happen for the second time in three tries in 2011.

The Chargers started their final drive at their 24-yard line, got a quick 18-yard gain with a completion to Gates and managed just seven more yards. Incompletions thrown out of bounds on his final two passes ended a day in which Rivers completed 16 of his 32 passes for 179 yards, with one touchdown pass and the two crushing interceptions.

His yardage total was fifth-lowest in his career in a loss, and his 51.4 rating was just the seventh time in 86 starts he’s had a rating below 60.

Never on Sunday did Rivers complete more than three consecutive passes but once threw six successive incompletions. Eight of his final 20 passes were completed, not counting the ones to Jets cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Kyle Wilson.

The aggressive Jets defense not only harassed Rivers but knocked his backs around as they tried to get into routes, most of the time eliminating the short passes that have saved the offense this season.

“You watch tape of (the Jets) and a lot of quarterbacks look out of sync,” Norv Turner said. “… Every team they’ve played they’ve been able to disrupt the quarterback and make plays on third down and put pressure on the quarterback.”

Sure, but the Jets aren't the first team to make this formerly high-flying offense look ordinary, at best.

Only three times in Norv Turner’s 69 regular-season games calling plays for the Chargers have they scored fewer offensive points than their 14 on Sunday. And this team that has scored 30 points or more at least five times in every season Rivers has been quarterback has failed to score more than 29 in a game this season.

To be fair, Rivers is not playing with a full deck.

Gates is not 100 percent and came in and out of Sunday’s game. Malcom Floyd missed the second half with a hip injury. Vincent Jackson has missed half of the practices in the past five weeks due to his balky hamstring.

“The way we’re going to get better is with all our guys on the field on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in practice,” Turner said. “(We need) to practice together and then go and play together.”

Thing was, early on in the early game (10 a.m. PT), the Chargers started efficiently. They followed linebacker Donald Butler’s strip and return for a touchdown with two well-executed drives to offensive scores – a two-yard pass from Rivers to Gates and a one-yard run by Tolbert. They were six-of-seven on third downs in the first half against the league’s best third-down defense.

But after taking a 21-10 lead with six minutes remaining in the first half -- and preserving that lead until halftime -- they would not score again. After not going three-and-out on 17 possessions coming into the game, they did so on two of their first three possessions of the second half.

Asked specifically about the effect of injuries, Rivers shook his head as he said: “We can sit here and think of a bunch of reasons why. The bottom line is that we came out playing really well. We just didn’t finish off the game.”